Mets shut Manaea down ‘for at least two weeks’

MIAMI — The Mets shut lefthander Sean Manaea down again after he suffered a setback in his recovery from a strained right oblique, significantly delaying his return to the team.

He won’t throw for at least two weeks, manager Carlos Mendoza said, then likely will restart a full spring training-style buildup of at least six weeks.

The new best-case scenario would be for him to make it back to majors in late May or early June. The Mets previously hoped he would return this month.

“Getting shutdown for two weeks, then we have to revisit and see where we’re at after that,” Mendoza said.

Manaea, who returned to the Mets in December on a three-year, $75 million contract, entered spring training with a seemingly minor oblique issue that he tried to play through, he said in late February. When it didn’t go away, the Mets sent him for an MRI and had him cease throwing for a couple of weeks.

Although he had resumed throwing recently, continued discomfort led to them getting another MRI on his right side. That showed “inflammation,” Mendoza said.

Manaea received an injection of platelet-rich plasma, which “significantly enhances the body’s natural healing process,” according to the Mets-affiliated Hospital for Special Surgery.

In Manaea’s continued absence, the Mets will continue with the starting five that has offered solid returns in the first handful of games of the season: Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning, David Peterson and Kodai Senga.

Extra bases

Paul Blackburn (right knee inflammation) began a throwing program Monday, as scheduled, he said. He had kept his arm in shape in his week on the sidelines by throwing indoors — but while seated in a chair, so as to not apply stress to his recuperating knee . . . Among the former Mets at Mets-Marlins on Tuesday: Florida residents Johan Santana and Edgardo Alfonzo, plus Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was covering Senga’s season debut in his role as a broadcaster for a Japanese company. Mets owner Steve Cohen also was in attendance, his first game of the season.